Factors Affecting Selection Of Clothing

FACTORS AFFECTING SELECTION OF CLOTHING

The selection of clothing should be done on the basis of age, season, income, occasion and fashion.

• Age : While selecting fabric one has to think of the age group of the child. For small children, dainty prints in soft colours can be chosen. Nursery prints are not suitable for elementary school children. When the children enter late childhood stage, the boys like masculine colours, for examples blue, grayish blue, and brown and girls like to wear feminine colours like pink, green and red. Some fabrics, which are delicate, are chosen for girls clothing whereas, rough textured fabrics are suitable for adolescent boys.

The style of the dress also changes according to the age group of the child. The A-line dresses are suitable for toddlers and infants. Later on, dresses with lots of gathers are suitable for girls' frocks. In the same way type of collars are suitable for younger age group, for example baby collar is not suitable for adolescent.

 Season : Some fabrics and colours are suitable for winter while others are not, for example synthetics; silk and wool are suitable for winter as they are bad conductor of heat. Cotton and blends of cotton with synthetics are good for summer as they are good conductor of heat and absorptive. There are cool and warm colours. The cool colours are associated with coolness, for example, blue, green, white etc. Warm colours are bad conductors of heat and associated with warmth for example, red, golden yellow and orange. So warm colours are suitable for winter, whereas cool colours are choosen for summer.

Income : Amount of money affects the selection of clothing. Children belonging to high-income group can spend more percentage of money on clothing as compared to low income. They can spend more money on fashionable garments rather than on durable clothes. Parents belonging to low-income group prefer durable clothes rather than delicate ones. So the preference of the clothing changes according to the income of the family. Low socio economic growth gives more importance to durability, comfort and price as compared to becomingness and beauty.

 Occasion : Selection of clothes also changes according to occasion. For daily wear or informal wear, durable dresses with simple designs can be chosen but for occasional or formal wear novel fabrics with new styles are chosen.

 Fashion : Fashionable clothes look beautiful. One looks odd when one go out of fashion. Few fabrics and colours are in fashion while others are not. Some clothes should be brought according to fashion and others should be simple. Children belonging to high-income group can wear fashionable clothes to great extent as compared to low-income group. Too much of fashion should be avoided.